One of Those Things
by avorialair
Summary: Rose and the Doctor argue after he has been mistreating her all day: the consequences are quite alarming. NineRose. [Complete]


**Title**: One of Those Things  
**Characters/Pairings**: Nine/Rose, hinted Eleven/Rose  
**Rating**: I'll call this one a K+ for language  
**Spoilers**: Hmm. None particularly. Not even Nine's regeneration into Ten.  
**Genre**: Romance, Fluff, Angst  
**Disclaimer**: Names are copyrighted to the BBC, blah blah blah. I hold the copyright over the place and the storyline, but hey, who'd want to steal those?  
**Summary**: Rose and the Doctor argue after he has been mistreating her all day; the consequences are quite alarming. NineRose.  
**Word Count**: 6,508  
**Author's Note**: Written for the ohsheknows ficathon over at livejournal. It took me quite a stupid while to get this one actually finished. Heh. Yay for procrastination.

**Dedication**: grace61, because she asked

**One of Those Things**

He had been in a bad mood ever since Rose said 'good morning'.

"Rose," he'd snapped, glaring up from the spherical metal implement in his hands, "how many times do I have to tell you? The TARDIS doesn't have mornings."

She'd blinked at him. "What's eating you?"

"Nothing," he had answered shortly, looking back down to his sphere. "Just get it right."

He had then spent the rest of the 'morning' muttering darkly as he worked the sphere in his hands, twisting segments and applying the sonic screwdriver where necessary. He had ignored Rose's offer of breakfast, so she had ended up eating alone in the kitchen and gloomily nursing a warming cup of tea.

She had walked tentatively back to the console room to find the Doctor sitting cross legged on the floor with the sonic screwdriver in his mouth and the sphere in bits around him.

"Not going well, then?" she commented from the doorway.

He threw her a thunderous look.

"Ooh mih ah mayee uh cuhuh ee," he muffled sourly, mouth wrapped around the screwdriver.

"What?" Rose asked and stepped forward towards him. He spat the sonic screwdriver out and it rolled across the floor.

"I said," he repeated, glowering up at her, "that you might have made me a cup of tea. If I'm carting you 'round time and space, the least you can do is to make sure I'm well hydrated."

"'Scuse me," Rose countered, standing with a hand on her hip. "Who was the one who declined breakfast this morning? Not my fault if you changed your mind; you only had to come find me and ask if you wanted one."

"I was busy."

The Doctor shrugged his answer and looked to the bits and pieces around him. The circuitry was well and truly kaput, and the screwdriver had only made it spark harder when he had tried to twist the segments into their correct places. He now sported a rather burned thumb as a result.

He clambered to his feet, brushing his jacket loose of screws and various other oddments that clattered to the floor before falling beneath the grating of the TARDIS.

"Makes no difference now, anyway," he added, straightening his coat and glancing to the controls. "I need to pop to Centuris to replace this hunk of junk."

He nudged what was left of the shell of his sphere with his foot. Rose eyed it suspiciously.

"And what exactly is that, Doctor?"

He didn't look at her, instead frowned down to the controls and rolled his hand over a dial. "You wouldn't understand."

He continued to be equally unpleasant throughout the journey, giving her no time to change, ordering her to sit still and not touch anything and refusing to give details about where it was they were actually going. Rose gave up in the end and simply let him get on with it.

They landed with a rumble and, without pausing to look at Rose, the Doctor made towards the door. She stood and cleared her throat loudly. He glanced back irritably, as though she had just interrupted him from something very important.

"You coming?" he demanded.

"I'm not going outside those doors until you tell me what's wrong," Rose said resolutely, putting her hands on her hips.

The Doctor seemed to momentarily consider this. Then, he shrugged and unclicked the latch on the door.

"Guess you're staying here, then. Bye. Have fun."

With a small wave and a curt smile, he disappeared. Rose stared, half in shock, half in anger. Then, with a defeated sigh, she strode over to the door and followed. She had a feeling he was going to be impossible today.

-I-

To her surprise, the Doctor hadn't waited for her. She had to jog to catch up with his long strides and she joined him half way up the alleyway he had landed in. He didn't spare her a glance.

"Took your time," he commented lightly, rounding the corner. "Thought you'd be faster in following at my heel."

Rose glared at him. "You're heading for a smack, you are."

"Oh, I'm shaking in my boots."

She would have come back with a biting retort, but they had reached the end of the alley and Rose, assuming safety, had walked straight out of it without looking: right into a road. A motorbike, with hover jets rather than wheels, swerved violently to avoid her and caused cars on the opposite side to skid to a halt. Horns blared as all drivers aimed abuse at the young blonde, who could do nothing but stare in shock.

The Doctor grabbed her hand and pulled her with a jerk back beside him before she had gone more than a few paces, and no real damage was done.

However, that didn't stop him from turning to her with a face moulded from anger.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" he roared, apparently uncaring of the fact that they were already drawing attention to themselves.

"I – I'm sorry," Rose stuttered, heart still hammering in her chest. She was used to being able to walk anywhere when with the Doctor, and the prospect of a busy road hadn't even crossed her mind. "I just, I didn't think – "

"No, you didn't," the Doctor cut across, voice now lowered but his tone terse. "You're just lucky no one was hurt. This place is usually a lot busier." His eyes flashed and he jabbed a finger in her direction. "From now on do what I say. Don't wander off, don't talk to anyone, and _don't_ cause any more trouble."

Rose felt her anger rise. He didn't need to treat her like an inexperienced child, especially not after he already had been a git to her so far.

"Look who's talking," she countered, looking him square in the eye.

"I know what I'm doing, you don't," the Doctor replied without even flinching. "So, if I were you, I'd shut it. Now, come on."

Rose's cursed reply was drowned by the blast of a lorry's horn as it sped by. With the atmosphere significantly tenser, the pair set off again.

The city was absolutely packed. Even Rose, who was accustomed to London, found it nearly overwhelming. The traffic on the roads was in a constant stream of impatient movement, aliens jostled them from every side on the pavements and the air felt thick to breathe. The locals of the place all sported the same chocolatey skin, with hammer-like heads and rows of sharp teeth in their tiny mouths. Most were taller than both Rose and the Doctor, but he still managed to command total authority as he walked; the crowds parted easily for him. Rose was left to battle her way through his wake.

She finally caught up with him when he had drifted away from the main throng of the crowd and stopped outside a dingy looking shop. It could almost have been a street in London, except that all the buildings looked as though they had been built under the influence of alcohol; many of them seemed top heavy and bent over in strange curves. Rose wondered how they managed to stay up. Then, remembering something the Doctor had once told her about a planet that had ceased to exist because too many tourists questioned the possibility of it being there, she stopped. She didn't want to be responsible for disappearing buildings, after all.

The shop the Doctor stood at was made of dark wood. Its windows were covered in grime, both inside and out, and though Rose hoped the door was black naturally, she doubted it. She stared up the sides, craning her neck to see the sign at the top.

"Emporium," she read aloud, squinting. "For all your mechanical needs."

The Doctor looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Good to know you can read," he commented dryly, then stepped forward and pushed open the door. A welcoming bell tinkled above. Rose scowled after the bad-tempered Time Lord, any hopes she had had on the walk here that he was over his problem dashed.

She followed him inside, careful to push the door with her shoulder rather than her hand for fear that it really _wasn't_ black by natural occurrences. She was instantly thrown into darkness.

The windows offered barely any light at all, and whatever did manage to filter through was tinged with a sickening green. A dusty light bulb offered only a very small amount of light, and she could only tell where the Doctor was by the sound of his hushed talking at the counter. Eyes adjusting to the gloom, Rose was just about able to make out his darkened figure ahead of her. She stepped towards him. A terrifying clatter rang out through the shop and she froze.

The Doctor whirled around, face hidden in the darkness.

"What on Centuris are you doing, Rose?" his voice shot at her. She gave him a glare and walked carefully around the box on the floor she had accidentally kicked.

"There was a box," she tried, but the Doctor started on her before she got more than a few words out.

"If you can't even watch where you're going, maybe next time I _will_ leave you on the TARDIS. This gentleman is trying to concentrate, and I am not having some stupid ape buggering up my attempts to fix my ship."

That, Rose decided, was it. If he was going to continue to embarrass and chastise her, he could do this one on his own.

Without another word, she turned and headed for the shop door.

"Rose, where do you think you're going?" the Doctor's angry voice warned from behind her. She didn't answer him.

The street outside was still just as busy, but feeling elated by her freedom, Rose couldn't help but smile. No doubt the Doctor would sort himself out soon enough, and then she might try and get to the bottom of what was bothering him. Or maybe she would just ignore him and let him get on with it on his own. No matter the problem, she decided as she began to weave her way through the crowd once more, there was no excuse for treating her like that.

Lost in thought, Rose barely noticed the hand on her arm.

She turned quickly, heart only skipping at the fear of being in an alien place, and looked up into the face of the Doctor. She instantly scowled at him and wrenched her arm away.

"What are you doing?" he hissed, accent a little more sharp.

"Letting you get on with it," Rose answered, as though it were obvious.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and dragged her to the side of the flowing crowd once more.

"I told you to stay by my side – "

"If you think I'm staying with you for another second after how you've been treating me, you've got another thing coming," Rose cut across, taking her arm from his grasp once more and giving him a defiant look. He turned again, eyes blazing.

Then a somewhat smug smile began to play on his lips.

"Oh? And where are you gonna go, exactly?" he asked, folding his arms.

"Anywhere that's away from you," Rose said vehemently. "If you don't want to tell me what's wrong, that's fine, but I'm gonna go and find some people who actually want to be around me."

For a second, the mask seemed to falter, and Rose thought she saw a true look of worry cross the Doctor's face.

"It's dangerous," he said, eyes meeting hers.

She reached for the chain around her neck and held up the TARDIS key. "I've got this," she reasoned. "Besides, I think you can do better without a stupid ape in your hair, yeah?"

Their gaze locked for a tense moment, each silently daring the other to start another wave of argument. Eventually, the Doctor just sighed and looked away.

"Fine," he grated out, as though he were dealing with an immature child. "Just Fine. Sod off then. Do what you want. Just don't expect me to come get you if you get lost."

Rose's face became hard with offended, scared anger. "Well, don't expect me to come back if you've still got an attitude like that."

With that, she disappeared into the moving bustle of people and let herself get lost between them. If the Doctor followed, he didn't find her.

-I-

It was probably only a few hours later that Rose began to think that this wasn't such a good idea. Her feet hurt from all the walking she had done in a small space of time and she had no idea where she was. She had had to dip into a few shops once or twice, if only to avoid the constant stream of people outside. Though she would never admit it to his face, she missed the Doctor's company. When he was around she felt like she had a right to be here, and knew that he would protect her if anything went wrong. Without him was like being given a present without the wrapping paper.

After being glared at by sales assistants in the shops, Rose had quickly left. She soon found herself tired again, and forever squinting up into bright sunlight was not her idea of proving to the Doctor that she could have fun without him. Neither was jumping to and fro out of the locals' way as they careered down the street towards her.

She eventually found her way into a busy square and, slipping out of the mass of crowded people, made her way to the centre. She gazed up at a tall fountain, spurting different coloured jets of water out of each opening that glittered its way down into the tray below. She couldn't work out what the stone statue was actually supposed to be, but she enjoyed the content feeling that wavered off it.

"Oi, love," a gruff voice said from behind her, "you gotta pay to look at that."

She turned around and came face to chest with a very tall alien. "Excuse me?" she asked, blinking up at him.

He tilted his head, eyeing her suspiciously from one side of his face. With a grunt he then extended an arm to the fountain.

"No one is allowed to set eyes on Rabuchha for longer than ten seconds without paying a fee," he explained. "You've been here for at least a minute. So – " His teeth widened into a menacing smile " – cough up the cash. Or I call the authorities."

His hands flexed into fists and Rose glanced at them nervously. She took a slight step backwards.

"I'm not from round here," she tried, looking between teeth and hands alternately.

"No. I can see that. Now, you got the money, or not?"

"'S just a fountain," Rose said quickly, stepping backwards again. "I didn't mean anything. I was just looking. My friend, he'll be able to – "

"If you don't have the money," the alien said, face screwing up into what Rose could only assume was a frown, "you'll have to pay in other ways."

"Tell you what," Rose countered, wondering if he would accept some random coins in her pocket as payment, "how about I go get my friend and he pays you. Yeah?"

The alien laughed. "I don't think so. There's nothing to say I'll ever see you again, is there?"

He had a point.

Rose looked up to him and stood tall. "What... what happens if I don't have the money?" she asked, attempting to keep out the nerves in her voice.

"Then you're a law breaker," the alien replied simply, advancing forward. "And there's only one thing that happens to law-breakers around here..."

He lifted his hand, four fingers stretching into claws, above his head. Rose flinched and wondered how quickly she could dodge around him; and how quickly he could catch her up in the crowds.

She didn't have to wonder for long.

Before she knew what was happening, a figure appeared in front of her and stepped between her and the alien. Said alien faltered.

"Mate, you're in my way," he grunted obviously.

Rose stared at the mass of black hair that was in front of her, finding it hard to focus on someone that close. Then she realised – hair! At least the person in front of her had a good chance of being human...

"I'm well aware I'm in your way," a voice replied, confident in its air. "In fact, the whole reason I'm standing here is – believe it or not – to remain in your way. Were you just about to strike this young woman?"

The alien seemed a little startled. "No business of yours."

"Actually, I think you'll find it is. She's human, so she's under my care; it's payment you're after, is it?"

Rose found she was holding her breath and wondered just what the hell was going on.

The alien lowered his arm. "Yeah," he answered gruffly, looking between Rose and the man in front of him. "You got it?"

The man dug inside the pockets of his navy coat and revealed a few palm-sized coins, which he then held up in front of him.

"Take these and get back to your duty. I'll handle her from here."

The alien, taking the coins, gave one last grunt. "Good luck with that, mate," he said, then turned sharply and walked across to the other side of the square.

Rose stared after him, quite baffled.

"I am sorry about that," the man began, turning around to face her. "Can never tell with this species. Sometimes they just don't..." His green eyes met Rose's and he stopped mid sentence. "Hello."

Rose swallowed and smiled self consciously. "Hi."

He was most definitely, she noticed, not from this planet. He looked human. While she had been walking around earlier, she had noticed one or two other humans, and some other aliens of different species, so he was not a huge surprise. A tame wave of dark hair framed his elongated face, with well carved cheeks and a chiselled jawline. His eyes danced green like grass with flecks of jade around the iris, and his lips were drawn back into a gentle smile.

His coat, long enough to reach just above the floor, fluttered gently around his lean figure, his jet black shirt making him look that little bit more slim. Rose couldn't help noticing the first two buttons were undone, and that he was also wearing extremely well-fitting jeans. With a blush she met his eyes again.

"Hi," she repeated, feeling rather like an embarrassed teenager on a first date.

He, luckily, seemed oblivious. "You are all right now, aren't you?" he stepped backwards a little, as though realising just how close to her he had been standing. "Not lost or anything? No?"

"I don't ...know where I am," Rose told him honestly, glancing out to the still bustling streets. "I mean, I'm on Centuris, yeah, but I don't know how to get back."

The man bit his lip slightly, which made him all the more endearing. "Get back where?" he asked cautiously.

"To my friend. He, um ...we got separated."

She had no idea why she was telling this man about the Doctor. She had absolutely no desire to go back to him at the minute, but it was the only thing she could think of to keep him talking to her.

"Oh, and thanks, by the way," she felt herself adding hurriedly in a fluster. "For getting rid of hammerhead over there. Don't know what I would have done."

"I'm sure you'd have managed," the man told her kindly. "You look like you deal with that sort of stuff quite a bit. Jeopardy friendly, one might call you."

Rose smiled to herself. "Yeah," she agreed with a laugh. "I guess you could say that. Can't say getting into trouble is a rarity with me."

"You and your ...friend." He was smirking attractively, as though he and Rose were sharing a joke.

She grinned. "My name's Rose." She offered her hand.

The man hesitated, biting the corner of his lip again. It seemed to be a habit. Then, carefully, he took her hand and shook it.

"Jonathan," he replied, eyes flicking up to hers. Their hands lingered. "And I'm very pleased to meet you. Do you mind me asking what you're doing here?"

"Oh, I'm just ...passing." She shrugged and glanced over to one of the buildings. "What about you?"

"Much of the same, actually."

Rose noticed his voice had a lilt to it that made him slightly draw out his vowels and roll over his consonants. He sounded, she thought, almost Scottish. She smiled.

"I'm staying here for a day or two to get a feel for things around here. I'm a trader."

Rose stared at him. "A what?"

"A trader," Jonathan repeated, laughing. "I travel to and from places and – well, trade. It's perfectly simple. After travelling a lot, as I do, it becomes that little bit more fun if you exchange bits and pieces of alien worlds with each other. You learn a lot."

"Sounds like it," Rose agreed, despite the fact that she had little idea what he was talking about. "Where you from, then?"

Jonathan smiled and looked over his shoulder. "I get a lot of people asking me that, would you believe. Always struck me as strange. I never wonder where people are from – I wonder where they're going."

Rose felt herself blush and she glanced to the cobbled floor. For some reason, she felt as though she had said the wrong thing.

Presently, Jonathan looked back to her. "What's this friend of yours like?"

"Oh, he's..." She remembered all the arguing they had done today and sighed. "He's different."

"Well, everyone's different, Rose," Jonathan chuckled. "Do you travel with him?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "We go all over the place. He shows me planets and stuff, and I... I dunno. I help him when he gets in trouble."

"I'm sure you do more than that."

Rose looked up into his smiling face. "I don't think he notices," she admitted quietly, wondering why Jonathan felt so easy to talk to.

"I think he does," Jonathan countered, his eyes glittering. "I think it would be impossible not to notice you." Rose blushed, and he continued before she could even say thank you. "Where is he, then, if not here?"

"He's shopping," she replied, realising at the same time how ridiculous it sounded. She had never imagined the Doctor as the shopping type. "I left him a while back; God knows where he is now."

Jonathan's smooth features pulled into a frown. "You left him?" he asked interestedly. "Why?"

"I... We had an argument," she mumbled, looking away from his intense gaze.

"Oh?" Jonathan shuffled closer to her. "What about?"

Frowning, Rose tried to remember. "I'm not really sure. He was just being horrible to me, and I'd had enough. No one talks to me like that, you know?"

"Apparently not..."

"He's not always like that, or anything," Rose amended quickly. "He's usually fine. Actually, he's usually a bit up himself 'cause he thinks he knows everything, but I don't care, 'cause he usually does. But today he's just... I dunno. It's like he woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something. Mind, he tells me he doesn't sleep, so I dunno. I guess he's just sulking."

She looked up to find Jonathan repressing a smile.

"He does sound like a character," he mused, hair blowing slightly around his face in the wind. "I can honestly see no reason as to why he would be in a bad mood with you, though. Have you ...been anywhere recently? Somewhere that might have upset him?"

Rose, shocked by the question, took a few moments to reply.

"We've just ...no, I don't think so." Her forehead crumpled as she frowned. "Last place we went was back home for a couple of days."

"What happened?"

Wary of Jonathan's tone, Rose let her eyes flick over his face before she answered. "Nothing..." she answered slowly, suddenly very aware that she didn't know a thing about this man. "We just visited my mum."

His gaze seemed to soften somewhat and, ever so slightly, he tilted his head. "That's all?"

Rose took an intake of breath as memories flooded back to her.

_Jackie stared noxiously at her over the rim of her mug. Rose, feeling the eyes focused on her, shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other and – not for the first time in her life – started counted the kitchen tiles._

_When she couldn't stand it any longer, she braved a look up. "What?"_

"_You've changed," her mother commented immediately. Her ring clinked against the china as she tapped her fingers against it._

"_Have I?" Rose took a sip of her tea and glanced out of the window._

"_Since the last time I saw you, you've changed. What's happened?"_

_She didn't sound accusing, Rose noticed. She sounded far too interested, however, as if she'd got hold of an idea and wouldn't let it go._

"_Nothing's __happened__," Rose pointed out reasonably. "We've just gone to a few places since last time. That's all."_

"_Few places like where?" Jackie leant back against the surface. "He's done something to you, hasn't he? He's taken you somewhere and you're – "_

"_Mum," Rose laughed, hardly believing what she was hearing. "It's fine. The Doctor's fine, I'm fine. We're all fine, yeah?"_

_Jackie took a moment to look her daughter in the eye. "I'm not so sure about that, sweetheart."_

"_He takes very good care of me."_

"_Yeah, but that's not what I meant."_

_Rose frowned. "What did you mean, then? 'Cause honestly, Mum, I am happy. I'm happier than I can ever remember being."_

_Another, longer, silence followed, and Rose even began to wonder if her mother was right. __Had__ she changed? Or would she always have found this sort of conversation uncomfortable? It might have been due to the fact that, for a rare time, the Doctor had actually come with her when she had paid a visit. He was, at this moment, sitting in the living room. He was also probably pawing through the post, Rose realised with an amused smile._

"_Do you love him?" Jackie asked after a while._

_Rose looked up to her sharply. "What?"_

_Her mum lowered her tone of voice conspiratorially. "Him." She jerked her head towards the living room. "A mother can tell these things, Rose."_

"_Oh, don't be daft," Rose replied quickly, fighting down a severe blush and averting her gaze to the magazines on the kitchen table. "'Course I don't."_

"_So you're telling me you'd travel all round time and space with a man you don't even love?"_

_Rose found herself sighing petulantly. She closed her eyes. "It's not like that. Never has been, never will be. The Doctor's not the kind of person that goes in for that stuff – and neither am I. It's different with him. I don't have to... have to __worry__ about all that stuff. I can just be myself."_

"_And that's enough, is it?" Jackie asked suspiciously, obviously not buying Rose's story. _

"_Honestly." Rose nodded. "He's just a bloke."_

_Not long afterwards, the Doctor popped his head around the door and curtly told Rose he would be heading back to the TARDIS. With a quick hug to her mum, she followed him, ready to take on the next adventure of time and space._

"Yes," Rose affirmed with a nod of her head, looking Jonathan in the eye. "That's all." She frowned, then, and wondered why she trusted this man so completely when he had given her little reason to. "Why am I telling you all this?"

Jonathan shrugged and slid his long hands into the pockets of his jeans. "You trust me because I got you out of trouble. It's probably nothing you can explain. A lot of people trust me; it's what makes my job easy. Now then, shall we find your friend?"

Rose was a little taken aback, and took a few moments to just look at Jonathan as he strode off. She then caught up with him, and looked at him slyly out of the corner of her eye.

"Bit confident for a man I've just met," she said with a smirk.

"Nonsense." He turned to look at her. "You're lost."

Rose was about to protest that she was just exploring, not lost, but at that moment she became startled by Jonathan taking her hand and pulling her into the crowd.

"Careful where you step," he said quietly in her ear. "These crowds can be something of a nightmare I you don't know your way."

It felt strange to have a hand in hers that wasn't the Doctor's. Whenever _he_ took her hand, it was always with an almost nervous hesitance – unless they were running for their lives. His fingers almost always slipped between hers and it felt like the most incredible, comforting touch that she knew no one else would ever live up to it.

Jonathan had taken her hand for the sake of making sure she stayed with him, and it was more a light touch than anything else. His fingers didn't curl around her hand and she didn't feel like she would be happy holding his hand forever. Despite herself, Rose missed the Doctor.

"You miss him," Jonathan commented back over his shoulder, surprising her.

"The Doctor?" Rose qualified.

Jonathan made a noise that might have been a brief laugh, but it was lost while they walked. "If that's his name."

A thousand responses of denial all rushed to Rose's mind, but for some inexplicable reason, nothing but honesty came in her answer.

"Yeah. I do."

Her friend pulled her to the thinning edge of the crowd and took a moment to look her in the eye. His eyebrows pulled together in a questioning frown.

"Why don't you tell him?" he asked.

Rose laughed and shook her head from side to side. "Tell him what?"

"How you feel."

The answer came quickly and surprised her. She stared at Jonathan.

He chuckled. "There's a reason people trust me, Rose. I can read them. I can look into your eyes and tell you how you feel. I've always been able to."

His eyes locked on hers and Rose felt herself growing steadily more nervous. Was he judging her?

"I'm not judging you," he told her quietly.

Rose took her hand away from his, her heart beating out a warning in her chest. "All right, that's enough," she said forcefully, looking at Jonathan dubiously. "That's enough creepy voodoo from you. I think I can find my way back from here fine, thanks."

He held up a hand into the air beside him. "I believe we're already here."

With some shock, Rose realised that he was right. They were standing outside the very same shop in which she had left the Doctor some time before. Quite how Jonathan managed to get back here so quickly was beyond her; it felt like they had only been walking for a few minutes.

She turned back to him, heart fluttering. "How did you...?"

"Rose. I'm going to give you some free advice." Jonathan stepped right in front of her, so close that she could see the dark stubble lining his chin. His eyes looked so bright that she had no choice but to stare into them. "Don't waste your time wondering about things you already know. Don't let it go. Tell him."

She frowned, confusion bubbling in he mind. "Who _are_ you?"

Jonathan nodded. "Just a friend."

The shop door open and the little bell tinkled. Rose glanced back over her shoulder to see the Doctor emerging, his hands empty. His eyes widened when he saw her.

"Rose!"

Knowing she had to make a quick farewell to her new friend, she turned back again – only to find that she was alone. Frowning with shock and confusion, she looked around, but she couldn't see very far into the sea of people. A cold wind whipped up around her and she shivered.

She felt a hand on her arm and faced the Doctor. His face was impossible to read, and he looked down at her with a thin mouth.

"I thought you'd wandered off."

"Yeah, I... I did," Rose answered distractedly, still keeping an eye out for Jonathan. But he had completely vanished; there was no sign of him anywhere, and no sign that he had ever existed in the first place.

"Rose? What's wrong?"

She looked back to the Doctor, squinting into the ever-bright sunlight.

"Nothing," she answered simply. He didn't look convinced, but she pushed past it. "Did you get what you wanted?"

"Nah. Didn't have it. Never did. You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah." She smiled at him. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... I've lost someone. He said..." The Doctor gave her a gentle, questioning look, and Rose's sight hesitated on his eyes. "Never mind."

"No, Rose, tell me," he answered, putting his hands on her shoulders. "What happened?"

The incredible blue of his gaze was piercing. His eyes held such startling colour, especially in this light, that Rose couldn't help but just stare at them. He waited patiently.

After a moment or two, Rose frowned.

"You've cheered up. Surprised you're not telling me off for imagining things."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor told her immediately. "For being so... well. You know. I should have gone after you when you left, but I couldn't see you after you'd gone into the street.. What were you thinking?"

His voice, this time, was not judgmental; he sounded like he had been through no ends of worry, and all of a sudden Rose was sorry, too.

"I just went for a walk," she said quietly, feeling equally guilty.

The Doctor's expression became a little more strained and his hands tightened on her shoulders. He locked her gaze. "What if I'd have lost you?" he asked quietly, apprehension in his voice. "What if something had happened and I hadn't been able to find you? What then?"

"But it didn't."

"But it could have."

Rose nodded silently and dropped her gaze to the floor. Then, the next thing she knew, the Doctor was pulling her into his arms and holding her to his chest. Surprised, she reached up and hugged him back.

"I didn't mean anything I said," he told her earnestly. "Not a word of it. I was just ...being a child. And I made you put yourself in danger because of it."

She found herself pulling back from him, enough to look him in the eye. He looked right back, eyes betraying nothing but colour. They seemed hauntingly familiar. Those eyes... They held wisdom in their depths, and secrets that no one should know.

"Doesn't matter," Rose said after a long moment. "Just promise whatever was bothering you has passed."

"Oh, it has," the Doctor assured with a laugh. He gave her a grin. "I believed something that wasn't true. I know it wasn't true, but I still believed it anyway. If that makes sense."

Frowning amusedly, Rose replied, "Not really."

The Doctor laughed again.

"Come on, you," he said, stepping backwards but reaching for her hand. "Time we went home."

He was just about to pull her back into the throng when Rose stopped him. He turned back, a curious expression on his face.

"What is it?"

Jonathan's words flew through Rose's head and her heart increased in speed. As she looked at the Doctor for an intense moment, she wondered – could she tell him? Could she tell him how much he meant to her, or how much she loved being with him? Could she admit that, no matter how well she could convince her mother, she couldn't convince herself? It was a difficult step to take.

"Doctor, I..." There were either too many words or not enough. She couldn't decide.

Then, suddenly, happening in such a surreal moment that she thought it was a dream, the Doctor was back in front of her. For the smallest of seconds his eyes met hers, asking a silent question, and then he dipped his head towards hers. His lips brushed hers gently, just once, before he stood again and looked into her eyes.

"I know," he murmured quietly. "I've always known."

She could still feel the ghost of the kiss on her lips. His reaction had more than startled her, and she wondered how he could know exactly what was troubling her mind.

The Doctor smiled slyly and caught her eye. "Time Lord, Rose. I'm not just a bloke."

Rose gave him a strange look. Those words rang out in her mind like a memory, but she shrugged it off. He grinned that manic grin at her and all the arguments of the day were forgotten.

"You're mad," she laughed, before throwing her arms around him. He continued to grin, hands sliding to her waist as he pulled her into him. This felt so easy, so natural, that it was almost like the next logical step.

"This okay with you?" the Doctor asked, a hint of worry in his voice. Rose smiled at him.

"Way more. 'S up there with chocolate."

"Only chocolate?" He sound affronted. "Chocolate my foot."

He bent and kissed her again, for longer this time, and he reached to cup Rose's cheek as he did so.

"Okay," she said a little breathlessly when he pulled back from her. "Better than chocolate."

It was a long time before either of them made it back to the TARDIS.

-I-

Elsewhere, walking through the crowds, a dark haired man was thinking quietly to himself. He hadn't seen Rose Tyler in more years than he could count. He was so old now. More than double his age since she had known him. Companions had come and gone from his side, but for the moment, he was travelling alone.

He had loved since Rose Tyler, and no doubt, he would love again. But even after these hundreds of years, his hearts had still fluttered a little to see her. Perhaps because of the memory of their time together, or perhaps because she had been that little bit more special to him when he had been younger.

He thought of her with keen fondness now, but he both knew and remembered that through his ninth and tenth incarnations he had felt so much for her than he had never been able to truly tell her. And he smiled to think that the Rose he had just helped still had those years of future ahead of her.

Time may be circular, he mused with a wry smile as he made his way back to his own TARDIS, but so was love.

It was just one of those things.


End file.
